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The story of Dave on Wheels was an elaborate, horrible deceit (7 Photos)

That same day (even before I published the story), Dave announced on his Twitter that he wasn’t feeling well. For me, this wasn’t entirely surprising. The week before, Dave Tweeted that he had checked into the hospital with shortness of breath. This was also confirmed when Dave’s sister, Nichole Rose, took to her Twitter to tell Dave to stay strong. This will not be the last time you’ll hear about Nichole Rose.

I posted updates on Dave throughout the week on theCHIVE. Dave’s condition appeared to be deteriorating quickly. Nichole posted that he brother had slipped into a coma early Thursday morning. Later the same evening, Nichole announced that Dave had passed away. Dave’s inspiring final words from his blog post quickly went viral.

Things get weird:

As soon as Dave ‘died’, Sarah Hill booked a flight to Los Angeles, presumably to attend a funeral in Newport Beach, about an hour south of LA. I picked Sarah up from the airport, she was beside herself, so was Erin.

I took Sarah to see Erin Willett, the two had been in constant contact with Dave over the past few months via Twitter’s direct message. When we arrived at Erin’s house, Erin showed us an email she’d received from a fellow Chivette. The email didn’t read like the thousands of well-wishing emails Erin had received that day. Instead, the email raised a couple key questions:

1. The email wondered out loud how a person who can only type 4 words-per-minute could carry on such lively conversations, responding so quickly to so many people.

2. She linked us to a local news article from Danville, VA, which contained a photo of David Rose. But this article, written in 2010, was about a young man with cerebral palsy named Hunter Dunn? Is it possible that David Rose was using Hunter Dunn’s photos? If so, why? – To retain his anonymity? Is David Rose actually Hunter Dunn? To our knowledge Hunter Dunn is alive and well today. The links provided more questions than answers.

4

We did some digging of our own and found a social media website called Stickam containing the same images and some additional photos of David that we’d never seen under the name ‘Dave on Wheels’. This social media entry was made in 2008 and predated the Danville article. This set our minds at ease a bit.

The girls were set to meet with Dave’s sister, Nichole, on Saturday. Hopefully we’d get more answers then. But when Nichole DM’d Erin and Sarah with a feeble excuse for why she couldn’t meet with them, we took steps to hire a private investigator. We also signed up for the website Archives.com, a real-time death record locator. Nobody by the name of David Rose had died recently. Something about the situation seemed terribly rotten at this point.

5

Who is David Rose?

David Rose had been on Facebook since 2007, he’d been on Twitter since 2010, sometimes Tweeting a dozen times/day. And his sister Nichole had been on Twitter for some time while as well. They Tweeted back and forth quite often in perfect concert. Sometimes Nichole was late to pick up Dave from his physical therapy and would text him to sit tight. They’d go to the mall together, Tweeting back and forth. If this story was indeed fake, it was one of the most sophisticated ruses we’ve ever seen; this took years to cultivate. It would require somebody willing to create multiple false identities. Somebody with not only intelligence, but someone with deep knowledge of cerebral palsy, ASL, and the Newport Beach area. Somebody very, very sick.

Then late last night, a girl wrote a blog outing Dave on wheels. One of the accusations cited a graph that proved that nearly all of Dave’s tweets were posted from TweetDeck, a social media dashboard to manage multiple Twitter and Facebook accounts. Somebody using a Tobii ocular reader would never use TweetDeck. But somebody posing as Dave could easily use the Deck, somebody like Nichole.

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6

The other shoe dropped an hour ago with the first comment below the ‘Dave on Wheels Exposed’ article on Blogspot exposing the deceit. In the comments below, there is an apology written by Nichole Rose herself. Nichole, it appears, is actually a man. He created Dave as “A character, a part of my psyche. No celebrity or fame was intended by this, it all came fast and was a total surprise… (I did it) to inspire people to live a better life but the public knowledge it came under, this false pretense takes it all away.”

This is one of the most difficult things I've ever had to post on theCHIVE and I'm rushing to get it into your hands so pardon me if there's any spelling errors here, Chivers.

Last week a profoundly deaf quadriplegic with cerebral palsy became an internet sensation. Dave on Wheel's positive outlook on life and quirky sense of humor was infectious. I had followed his Twitter for a while after being turned on to it by Sarah Hill and Erin Willett. The two have huge hearts, loved Dave's positive message, and had been online friends with Dave for months which helped Dave's Twitter grow from 8 to 800 followers.

Then Last Monday I decided to post some of Dave's most popular Tweets on theCHIVE, including "My mom and @NicholeRose85 waiting for me to fall asleep so they can leave lol. I should fake it so they go have a life."

Within hours, Dave's Twitter Machine exploded, he gained thousands of fans. His touching story was picked up by everybody from ABC News to RadarOnline to the NYDailyNews. Kim Kardashian even quoted Dave:

1

2

3

That same day (even before I published the story), Dave announced on his Twitter that he wasn’t feeling well. For me, this wasn’t entirely surprising. The week before, Dave Tweeted that he had checked into the hospital with shortness of breath. This was also confirmed when Dave’s sister, Nichole Rose, took to her Twitter to tell Dave to stay strong. This will not be the last time you’ll hear about Nichole Rose.

I posted updates on Dave throughout the week on theCHIVE. Dave’s condition appeared to be deteriorating quickly. Nichole posted that he brother had slipped into a coma early Thursday morning. Later the same evening, Nichole announced that Dave had passed away. Dave’s inspiring final words from his blog post quickly went viral.

Things get weird:

As soon as Dave ‘died’, Sarah Hill booked a flight to Los Angeles, presumably to attend a funeral in Newport Beach, about an hour south of LA. I picked Sarah up from the airport, she was beside herself, so was Erin.

I took Sarah to see Erin Willett, the two had been in constant contact with Dave over the past few months via Twitter’s direct message. When we arrived at Erin’s house, Erin showed us an email she’d received from a fellow Chivette. The email didn’t read like the thousands of well-wishing emails Erin had received that day. Instead, the email raised a couple key questions:

1. The email wondered out loud how a person who can only type 4 words-per-minute could carry on such lively conversations, responding so quickly to so many people.

2. She linked us to a local news article from Danville, VA, which contained a photo of David Rose. But this article, written in 2010, was about a young man with cerebral palsy named Hunter Dunn? Is it possible that David Rose was using Hunter Dunn’s photos? If so, why? – To retain his anonymity? Is David Rose actually Hunter Dunn? To our knowledge Hunter Dunn is alive and well today. The links provided more questions than answers.

4

We did some digging of our own and found a social media website called Stickam containing the same images and some additional photos of David that we’d never seen under the name ‘Dave on Wheels’. This social media entry was made in 2008 and predated the Danville article. This set our minds at ease a bit.

The girls were set to meet with Dave’s sister, Nichole, on Saturday. Hopefully we’d get more answers then. But when Nichole DM’d Erin and Sarah with a feeble excuse for why she couldn’t meet with them, we took steps to hire a private investigator. We also signed up for the website Archives.com, a real-time death record locator. Nobody by the name of David Rose had died recently. Something about the situation seemed terribly rotten at this point.

5

Who is David Rose?

David Rose had been on Facebook since 2007, he’d been on Twitter since 2010, sometimes Tweeting a dozen times/day. And his sister Nichole had been on Twitter for some time while as well. They Tweeted back and forth quite often in perfect concert. Sometimes Nichole was late to pick up Dave from his physical therapy and would text him to sit tight. They’d go to the mall together, Tweeting back and forth. If this story was indeed fake, it was one of the most sophisticated ruses we’ve ever seen; this took years to cultivate. It would require somebody willing to create multiple false identities. Somebody with not only intelligence, but someone with deep knowledge of cerebral palsy, ASL, and the Newport Beach area. Somebody very, very sick.

Then late last night, a girl wrote a blog outing Dave on wheels. One of the accusations cited a graph that proved that nearly all of Dave’s tweets were posted from TweetDeck, a social media dashboard to manage multiple Twitter and Facebook accounts. Somebody using a Tobii ocular reader would never use TweetDeck. But somebody posing as Dave could easily use the Deck, somebody like Nichole.

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6

The other shoe dropped an hour ago with the first comment below the ‘Dave on Wheels Exposed’ article on Blogspot exposing the deceit. In the comments below, there is an apology written by Nichole Rose herself. Nichole, it appears, is actually a man. He created Dave as “A character, a part of my psyche. No celebrity or fame was intended by this, it all came fast and was a total surprise… (I did it) to inspire people to live a better life but the public knowledge it came under, this false pretense takes it all away.”

In the end, this story played out more like a Hollywood film than real life. We’ve all been victimized by this disturbed individual. Here at theCHIVE, we often post funny and inspiring stories. It never dawned on us that somebody with such an established internet footprint would actually be mascarading as a deaf, physically handicap person. It would seem absurd to believe somebody would go so far as to fake a death.

I believe in the inherent goodness in the human condition. I’ve posted hundreds of sick and injured people in the DAR who need support. It doesn’t occur for me to write back, “I need proof that you have cancer before I post this.” But I overlooked that there are bad people out there, people who would go to such huge lengths to deceive the masses. All of us here, including and especially Erin and Sarah, are deeply hurt, angered, and saddened by this. And I’m sharing the truth as quickly as it arrives at my doorstep, everybody deserves to know what happened here.

Agreed. Spare me your shit story cause everyone has one, even a fake one. Avoid all this together

mellow

AGREED

J_Ace

This website is a community full of kind hearts, and you want John to stop posting REAL life stories of people who might actually need help? Why? So you can see more "funny shit, tits, and asses?"
Last i checked, these "faggy" stories that John has previously posted has not hindered his ability to keep posting funny stuff.
If you stop thinking immaturely for one second, then you could see that there are plenty of people out there that have gotten help from theCHIVE, all because John shed light on their situation.

Girly

agreed. This is an isolated case. If 99 out of 100 people actually need the help and 1% will abuse it, its still worth it in the end. We may have learned to be a bit more cautious from this, but not to stop trying and helping altogether.

boyly

agreed, even the american government thinks so, I don't remember who said it but "Its better to let 9 criminals go free then to let 1 man be falsely imprisonated" I think this applies well here

gronk

"imprisonated"?? Chive's next group cry has to be for you

http://twitter.com/undefined @undefined

You just made me fall out of bed laughing. Thank you.

sandy astroglide

Wait, there's funny stuff here? Who knew?

Mick

If you're only after tits and ass, try a porn site. Maybe when you've cleaned yourself up, you can come back in and try to understand what the Chive is all about. People like you should be chasing the sprinkler in the garden, and not annoying everyone here with bullshit comments like this. Clown.

Tim

Yeah its about funny pics and t&a.

Take that away and watch how few people visit.

True Confessions

I guess it's a little late now, but someone posted that they doubted this story on the Chive, It was Oct. 12, the day we all read that Daveonwheels supposedly passed. Kind of wish I would have paid closer attention to this then, might be an admission of guiltwho knows? (page5)

Pense · 3 days ago

#30 you know, I hate to doubt the world, but there is a possibility that Dave's situation in its entirety was a farce perpetrated by someone seeking some attention or money. When he became famous earlier this week with the chivers, those who are the perpetrators of this charade decided that their lie had drawn a bit too much attention and decided to end it, lest they be found out. Wouldn't want to have a news team coming looking for them and not be able to produce an actual person.

Running late for work so I had shown my respect before reading the post… what a mistake that was. Guy could had at least came clean before it escalated…even if it did so, quickly.

Apollob

I think the good still outweighs the bad. Nicole put an end to it before it got too out of hand. People were inspired by the tweets, which was Nicole’s intent – not to take advantage of people. Also, TheChive isn't responsible for censoring or filtering, they should be transparent. If they ask Chivers to support a cause, then they have responsibility for where that support goes. Otherwise, we are each responsible for how we react to what we take in.

Squints

Can people on this site not read?

cornhole

they have their buttholes in the air waiting to be BF'ed

Squints

There was no Nichole. It was some creepy dude in his basement playing both characters

Apollob

I realize there was no Nicole, I just used it as the name of the dude for reference in the discussion; call him Lady GaGa if you like.

Squints

How about call him a fucking loser. Go read that blog and his response. I think the question of pedophilia needs to be addressed. He held a facebook account since 2007 under this name with a NUMBER of under age girls as friends.

sandy astroglide

oh shit! my daughter is an underage girl!! I've been talking to her since she was born!!! Call Chris Hansen!!

J_Ace

What if an older man was talking to your underage girl? I bet your response would be a whole lot different jackass

Tom

It was poorly executed but he did cite good intentions that just got carried away.

Remember that episode of the Simpson's where Bart made a fake pen pal boyfriend for Ms. Crabapple and he had to find a way to fix it without telling her that it was all a lie?

dalshepsut

beautiful reference

macpearce

"dear baby….welcome to dumpville. population, you."

Jack Mehoff

Sugar in the gas tank. Ex-husband strikes again.

Ivan

theCHIVE… on wheels! Keep up the great work, mates!

Tom

That sucks. But honestly, of all the hoaxes that have happened, this is hardly the most damaging. It could be worse, he could have made away with someone's bank account. Everyone's mad now that they had sympathy for the death of a fictional character…

dalshepsut

That's a very good point, with all of those people following him and supporting his character he could have very easily asked for money. He would have gotten shit tons of cash too, from people wanting to help pay for dave's medical bills, or supporting him or whatever, cause people are dumb with money online. I doubt there were great intentions at first either, this guy was just being really weird on the internet, masquerading as different people online for whatever joy or peace that brought him. I'm not gonna judge him for his demons, we all have those, and I don't know what kind of shit he may have gone through in his life. But this character's story caught up with him and brought a lot of unwanted attention and fame, and instead of asking for money, or keeping this charade going for his own pleasure (although he may have considered that) he used it to try and inspire people, and end what he may have considered a real life (a lot of other people did too), in the most heartwarming, and what may have been life-changing for some people, way possible.
I'm not saying this guy deserves any reward or praise, but he doesn't deserve condemnation either.
And as much as it sucks to admit it, he may have helped some people be better people, at least for a couple days.

Thought u shld know

I didn't read the whole comment..

guest

"dave" didn't die. it was all a bunch of sick, twisted lies created by (probably) an overweight 30-something man living in his mom's basement.

sandy astroglide

way to stereotype overweight 30 year olds who live in their mom's basement, dick.

Brad

What an ass, but lets turn this into something good. Start a memorial or something for Hunter Dunn and a cure for CP.

The Truth

Was there any criminality here? I mean, was he a pedo asking underage girls for naked pics, for example? Did he extort money? This could get a lot bigger and worse folks.

Mike Hunt

Now that is a scary but likely thought there Truth. Holy *(%^

http://www.facebook.com/clint.bozic2 Clint Bozic

Yeah, cause all the girls are looking to give naked pics to a deaf, quadriplegic with cerebral palsy you probably still think free masons run America and think The Davinci Code is based on a true story. Be realistic. The guy is probably a chronic liar and the only way to get out of this situation in his mind was to fake the death of his made up character, without thinking of the aftermath.

KCO617

Did you comment just to get a word in there?Even if I hate the dude behind this, he made a valid point…

goatpunch

IDK some of the comments from dave were a little pervy, but It's like, well the guy can't do anything about it, all he can move is his eyes. I would not doubt it at all if girls sent him naked pics and he posted them around the internet

Airman

Read the blog idiot! Yes, the character "Dave on Wheels" was trolling for friendship with young impressionable girls and he referenced the word "Boobs" numerous times in his blogs. So, yes, he was a pedophile.

http://twitter.com/undefined @undefined

Looking for pictures of boobs doesn't make you pedophile. Sincerely, most men on the Internet (and a few women).

MylesofStyles

Hey Clit. You typed your name wrong. Regardless, I'm just glad I found you.

Bob

Clint, why are you being a dick? As said above, the man makes a solid point. This needs to be looked into IMO.

Dick

Ha ha. Way to vet your sob story's Chive. You deserve the embarrassment. Fuck you John. That's what you get for exploiting CP kids for page views.

https://www.facebook.com/mav2ag Thomas Pickett

Merely creating a false identification online is a crime in a number of states. For instance, Texas Penal Code 33.07 states:
(a) A person commits an offense if the person, without obtaining the other person's consent and with
the intent to harm, defraud, intimidate, or threaten any person, uses the name or persona of
another person to:
(1) create a web page on a commercial social networking site or other Internet website; or
(2) post or send one or more messages on or through a commercial social networking site or other
Internet website, other than on or through an electronic mail program or message board
program.
(b) A person commits an offense if the person sends an electronic mail, instant message, text
message, or similar communication that references a name, domain address, phone number, or
other item of identifying information belonging to any person:
(1) without obtaining the other person's consent;
(2) with the intent to cause a recipient of the communication to reasonably believe that the other
person authorized or transmitted the communication; and
(3) with the intent to harm or defraud any person.
By creating the profiles and using the photos of Hunter Dunn without his consent (or the consent of his family if he is dead), this person would be in violation of this law, if Hunter Dunn were to have been victimized in Texas or if the accounts were set-up in Texas. Now, apply this to applicable laws in Virginia, California and/or federal statutes. There may be criminal action that could be made.

Aaron

You took the time to either write all that or search for it and copy and paste but couldn't just dig a little deeper and type in "California" before your search?

We got duped. It happens. Bad people exist. File this in the "lesson learned" section and make changes going forward.

http://twitter.com/undefined @undefined

Your explanation fails to take into account a little bit of part (a) which says "with the intent to harm, defraud, intimidate, or threaten any person…" which "Dave on Wheels" did not do. Therefore the entire rest of your Texas penal code would be null and void in this case or any other applicable laws in Virginia, California and/or federal statutes. But you get an A for effort.

Huh

Are you just assuming Hunter Dunn is dead?

http://www.facebook.com/justin.josue Justin Josue

Bonner Paddock has cerebral palsy. He just finished this year's Iron Man Triathalon. Great story.

Jake

This is a great idea Brad… some good should come from this.

me and just me

I like this idea! Disregard some creeps online garbage. There is always someone pretending to be someone else. Hunter Dunn has been optioned for an unsavory purpose. Let's do something for him and others. I know this creep will rationalize that he facilitated it but who cares. Internet creepers do that to feel less like the bottom feeders they are.

Big dick

Hunter Dunn is alive and well you twitt learn how to fucking read!!!

AB

You have to be fucking shitting me. Then again, we always say.. "people believe everything they read on the internet". People make me sick

Whisper Yang

Bonjour!

theWizz

ha, not everyone will get this, but well done.
uh…bonjour!

Big Joe

Karma is a bitter hateful bitch!!!

Unfkngblvbl

Glad we didn't send a bunch of money.

Him.

Think of all the causes we did send money for 😮 the possibilities..

internet idiot

this is what you get for giving a shit about randos on the internet.

focus on real life.

fools.

Truth hurts

Hahahah I love how everyones upset over this. I'm sorry but I love the chive and Internet and stuff but come on are we that gullible as a generation to believe everything we read on the Internet? We're smarter then that….or are we?

Wait who?

No it's not about being gullible, it shows people still have hearts and open minds. Sadly I'm sure this has changed that.

Anonymous

than*

PDiddily420

Am I the only one who saw the headline and thought this was gonna be another Chive prank like the HOPA whiteboard girl? Glad to read on a and see it wasn't you guys behind this, that would have likely been unforgivable to most Chivers. I'm all for a good prank but inventing and killing off a handicapped kid would have definitely crossed the line

I looked at Sarah Hill's twitter page. She has numerous pictures of her and Erin apparently having a blast in LA on Friday, October 12. So just how much did these two know? If Sarah was so beside herself, it certainly didn't show in the photos of he and Erin on Friday in California. Perhaps some more digging should begin???

famewhore

thou shalt not trust those who famewhore the internet…

Big Joe

Agree

Ezza

well they only found out today like everybody else did, when they arrived on friday they like everybody else believe that this david and nicole were legit people….

Girly

I think Sarah and Erin found out upon Sarah's arrival that it was a hoax….may as well turn it in to a good time after that I guess. On the bright side, you'd no longer be mourning the death of a friend

Olivia Munn's BF

but they post twit pics of their cleavage and asses, they are soooo cool and would give internet morons like you and me the time of day.

I MUST DEFEND THEM FROM YOUR ANONYMOUS INTERNET ATTACKS!!!!!

bitch, please.

Statan

Link to the tits and asses or it didn't happen. Seriously we wasted enough time on this farce, lets get back to FLBP gaps and things that jiggle. Save the cryin' cancer stories for Lifetime.

MADCAT151

God bless him.

deadpool

Bless who??? That dude who made this all up?

Or do you mean Hunter Dunn?

Mark

there is no god.

Noob

Ain't that a bitch….

SOB

It is indeed, but its the same as crying at the end of a feel good movie, right? Movies are made up stories just like this but for the 2hrs we watch em they are real as shit!

mellow

TROLLS – 1,000,000,000 Chive – 0

theDirty

and how!

Jones

DAVE ON WHEELS….directed by M. Night Shyamalan

grumpy

Well, maybe if The Chive stops acting like a bunch of drunk frat boys, and grow up, they would not get snookered. They bitch about counterfitters ripping off their designs and counter the rip offs with another design. Instead they should grow up and learn to run a real business.

Chris

"They bitch about counterfitters ripping off their designs and counter the rip offs with another design."

The Chive's entire business model is to take other people's intellectual property, post it on their site without permission and then make money from the advertising that surrounds it. Sure, you can request they take down your work but by that then they've already made their money and what's the point if they're only going to post more of your stuff next week?

They use the excuse that they have no control over the content of the site and it's all user submitted which is nonsense since each post is curated by an editor (mac, John, whoever).

Don't even get me started on their merchandise designs, they're pretty much all copied from other people with only the tiniest of changes.

This isn't the first time you lot have been duped either. All those Chivettes submitting pics a year or so ago when the site wasn't as popular? Nearly all fake. The images had been floating around on the web for quite a while, the Chive just had an intern write 'first time chivette ;)' or something similar in different fonts across them all.

John

Al Qaeda has won.

http://www.thechive.com HostosFQ

hahahahahahahahahah

JDE

First let me say that this whole ordeal is saddening
Second… "Al-Qaeda has won" <— hilarious!

Aaron

"Thanks a lot Bin Laden"

rob

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH – fucking brilliant.

Jackson

That mother…fu

D.S.

On a side note, things are looking optimistic for chive charities!

nelpit

Don't be too hard on yourself, and keep faith in humanity. Don't stop trying to make a difference – You will succeed more than you fail.

Oh… And Chive on!

A BiPolar Guy

100%agreement

acupofjoe

I agree… can't let a bad egg ruin the good in us. KCCO all!

sjd

Well said. Thanks John for bringing this to our attention. We appreciate it and your effort. Although this is total horse shit and disgusting, now is a time like any other to KCCO !

Kikker

Well said, though I don't think this was a failure on John's part. He succeeded in what he wanted to do and couldn't have known the unbelievably twisted truth behind the story of "Dave on Wheels".

Faith in humanity and trying to do your bit to help is what makes the Chive community so beautiful, John. Keep it up, keep calm and Chive on !

Really?

I hope the 2 people that Dave's story kept from killing themselves (if that was true as well) realize that the wonderful people far outweigh the horrible trolls who fake shit like this for attention.

http://twitter.com/undefined @undefined

Fuck that yo let this be a lesson learned. Thats y i never give a fuck about these sad internet stories.
Ps lol to those dumb bitches who flew out there

http://twitter.com/undefined @undefined

@jjrrake

Iso

I think the only thing to do is open Chive Charities to donations to cover any expenses that Sarah Hill and Erin Willett might be out. Least we can do is keep them from having a debt for being good hearted.

Uptono

Don't beat yourself up John. The world is full of shit heads. How we react to situations like this is what shows our character.

KCCO

NebraskaGuy

Absolutely!

That's the best advice for this situation. While being taken in by such a thing makes us wary, let's not stop doing the good work humanity needs.

Keep Calm & Chive On indeed!

freshfraser

Exactly, you've done far better things and will continue to do so. It's an unfortunate reality that people will play off this spirit to help others, but you shouldn't feel at all like it's your fault. We all have your back 100% and will continue to do good!

Dar

I do feel bad for Erin and Sarah who's trust was completely taken advantage of. I pity the next bastard that tries to get close to them. Chin up girls their not all scumbags.

Chris

Agreed. This is completely out of left field. I have to say you guys have guts posting the truth. I respect that more than anything. All of you at theChive are just straight up good people.

Roxy118

If he's going to run a site that aspires to better the world (which he's masterfully done) , John has a responsibility to verify the facts on things like this before asking others to believe. I love the site but leadership needs to understand this a pivot moment. Start verifying with zeal or risk being an empty box. The opportunity to make something great awaits. The risk of allowing freaks and opportunists to feast on your audience's emotions is on you. The way to correct it is by digging and not getting hoaxed. Quite the irony but one not lost I'm sure.

Leave Venice – go to la city college and hire a kid that's ready to verify the facts of things.
That stuff is easy. Taking this beat is hard.

BiGGyT

"Trust but verify" was Reagan's position, so based on John's review, he had no reason to doubt the story, especially if there were credible sources to support it, who also were duped. I agree that this is terrible, and special place in Hell for the deceiver, but the spirit and emotion caused was real, and so try and cling to that as you all find out more about this.

Continue to hope that most people are good, and agree with op's position.

While Sarah and Erin are out considerable time and expense, they did get to hang out at theChive, so not a total loss 😉

BiGGyT

IrishInNJ

Boy oh boy….it's not just anger you feel after reading this but pity because clearly this "Nichole" character has serious problems of their own. TheChive is better for this and has no shame in being duped by a 5 year, spider's web of deceit. This is unheard of in its depth and scope.

http://twitter.com/undefined @undefined

Na internet deceit is a global pasttime

Greg

Agreed. No anger, just pity. I have actually told many people about Dave on Wheels and his inspiration and I am actually choosing to never tell them that it was a farce. For a small period of time I found myself not feeling bad about anything going on in my life and happy to have my family and health. I am going to take away three things from this. 1. That is the way I should be trying to live anyway KCCO, 2. The golden rule (Do unto others as you would do unto yourself) and 3. Dont believe everything you see on the interenet .

goatpunch

IDK that lady from catfish was pretty sick. She went so far as to makes up different voices on the phone, pretending to be her "daughters"

BGrimsleyII

…Wow

Jen

how do we know this isnt one big giant scam put on by thechive?

Paul from the gump

Anybody see the movie "Catfish"?

Cowthang

wow, what some sick assholes will do for attention….

Maytrix

Kind of ironic that you state that on a site where the majority of pictures are submitted by people seeking attention – granted they aren't sick, but most people do like attention – this guy just chose the wrong way to get it

HaHa! Looks like the kings of the internet hoax got hoaxed! That's some karma for ya.

kevin

who the fuck are you to diss the chive they do so much good

Guitarguy22

That's brutal!!! You're absolutely right. You would never think to ask someone to prove they were really sick. The problem is there are really "sick" people out there that get off on this kind of shit. That guy is a complete asshole!

Ava

I don't know… The person did fess up. They could also have tried to just disappear and not say acword like most 'fakers' do. I wasn't familiar with any of this beforevlearning ofvthe deceipt so i have no prior emotion being shattered. This could be a "sick" individual; however there is areal possibilitt (small but real) that it was in fact a well-intended person whose lie spiraled out of control and panicked. I feel for everyone who was duped in all this, I imagine the disappointment must be quite painful. Also it sounds like some i vested money to ho to the funeral… They must feel pretty awful rightnow. However, i agree with the 'lemins to lemonade' type posts that siggest using this attention for good.. Such asvraising miney and attention for CP.
If it is "sick" individual, don't let him win. Do good. The sick person woud want to break you sporits. Whatever form of energy they can get from you towards them is good to them. Spin it away from Nicholevand focus on a positive message.

Wet_tosti

Still keeping Calm and Chive on John! You just wanted to help! Stick to the credo.

Hrdwood

Agreed… The fact that one person acted dishonestly does not overshadow the 15,000 who acted out of love.

UGOTTROLLED

This is hilarious!!!!!!! You all need to quit your crying. This website glorifies trolling all the time. It also makes fun of people on a daily basis. This guy never asked to be on the chive or for money. Jon got trolled!!! Laugh it off. Dave on wheels had a lot of good advice take it in. KCCO

Now I feel like an even bigger ass for crying when I heard about this.

Someguy

No one at a hardware store should cry!

Charles J.

You shouldn't.

K-Nuke

Everyone is spewing venom an I don't understand why! You were all better people (or at least thought you were) when you thought Dave was real but now that you know he is a hoax, you are all worse than you were before! Does it really matter if the message of "live better, care more" came from a disabled person or a full grown man? He had a good message and you should all be thanking him for encouraging you to love; instead, you all hate him even though you loved him when he was Dave. You should all be ashamed of yourselves; get your head checked, Chive!!!

zoopilandia

Maybe David Rose doesn't exist, but DaveOnWheels sure does…

Kris

Yes it exists as a fraud and a lie who has taken away from people with real disabilities. Way to go.

Adam

It's amazing that people attach themselves through fictional characters on a regular basis. Knowing full well that said character is a conjuration of someones imagination. Apply the same idea to this scenario and its a huge uproar. I think it's disturbing that someone would go to this extent to create a character and then play on peoples heartstrings. He clearly knew what he was doing when Erin and Sarah set his Twitter a blaze. However, some of the tweets – even now knowing what I do – had an impact to me. Right or wrong, I understand what zoopilandia was saying. And it doesn't take away from people with disabilities. He just see's a silver lining in an otherwise morbid situation. Just to roll myself into the people I mentioned above "Get busy living. Or get busy dying." is a favourite quote of mine from a movie said by a fictional character.

Andy Dufrain

Well said brother. Also, shawshank redemption is probably the best movie ever and does have some quotes to live by.

Blind_Eye13

I'm actually going to stick up for whoever started this, and hear me out before you all get defensive about it. 1) He stated very clearly that he never intended for it to become this popular, and because he didn't want to deceive people he shut it down and then told the truth. 2) What he said as Dave on Wheels is still inspiring. Does it matter if it was a persona and not a person? Not to me. The basic truth still stands: that even in adversity you should keep a positive attitude. I'm not saying it was the right thing to do, but to completely discount it I think is wrong. Regardless of where it came from, what was said by 'Dave on Wheels' still helped people.

http://twitter.com/undefined @undefined

Not gonna hate because I feel just about the same as you, but you have to admit, swallowing any explanation is difficult considering it's posted by a liar on the Internet, the land of liars. Here we go, believing what we read on the Internet in a story trying to teach us to not believe everything we read on the Internet.

...

What the fucking fuck. I actually cried at the last posting by 'Dave', very real tears. Now I feel insecure and just horrible.

Bob

So did I. At least that makes us human, and decent. Silver lining.

http://www.shroudedday.com Dan

Agreed. Friday was the first time I cried like that in a long time. I'm going to try to remember how I felt at that moment as opposed to the trust that I have lost in the past 15 minutes since I first read this post.

CanadianChivette

Damn good point.

CowboyChiver

So true…

AmerikanInfidel

Why would you cry about some guy that you dont even know, wouldn't even know about unless a website you just happen to look featured some of his twitter messages?

http://twitter.com/undefined @undefined

You see, there's this thing called empathy…

MrsBlaster

I cried hard as well and felt duped, but why should we feel bad about caring so much for someone we barely knew or thought we knew? I think it shows what big hearts the Chive community has and that we really care about others. Yes, shame on him for toying with our emotions but also kudos for trying to inspire others even though he went about so wrong.

Idius

I agree. What he did to the guys at the Chive and our sweet Chivettes sucks. He strung them along for months, but if this was really about attention wouldn't he have whored himself out like a certain Kardashian that we all know. Hint, she's mentioned in this article. It seems like this person realized what was going on once he/she/whatever was gaining a following and decided to do the right thing and back out…

Young children stop reading here.

I cried too when I read that whole thing on "Dave's" blog, but the fact that this individual was not real doesn't negate the feelings we had. When you discovered that Santa Claus wasn't real did you hate your parents for lying to you? Did you negate the lessons of selflessness and giving that you were supposed to gain from a story of a man that only gives away things to others in exchange for something as simple as milk and cookies?

I can understand the pain. Betrayal is a terrible thing. Please do not respond with vehemence and anger. When such negative emotions posses us, evil/bad/nastiness truly do win.

iChive

…Santa isn't real either? This just keeps getting worse.

UGOTTROLLED

This is hilarious!!!!!!! You all need to quit your crying. This website glorifies trolling all the time. It also makes fun of people on a daily basis. This guy never asked to be on the chive or for money. John got trolled!!! Laugh it off. Dave on wheels had a lot of good advice take it in. KCCO

Matt

oh. shit.

ejaculASIAN

absolutely disgusting. this is an example of humanity at its worst.

FoodForThought

How? I'm not saying that it's right but I'm also not saying it's wrong or "disgusting" as you put it. The guy has developed multiple personalities, a disorder which many people around the world have. The difference is that until modern day social media, people with this disorder never had the ability to further develop these identities into socially active "people." He didn't try and sell or make a profit off these characters, he didn't push to become famous. He simply was being "these personalities" I guarantee that many people with multiple personalities have twitter or facebook pages for them, because to them these people are REAL.

http://twitter.com/undefined @undefined

He never said he had multiple personalities. He said it was a character. This was done on purpose, for his own sick amusement.

http://twitter.com/undefined @undefined

For his own sick amusement? Wait, isn't that what 99.999999% of all Twitter posts are? Hard to believe there was any nastiness or deliberate deceit involved. It's much more feasible this liar's confession is true. The guy "existed" for YEARS. He probably kept things at a low profile because he wanted to avoid attention because he was fake. It found him anyway. Now he's paying the price for it. That's his punishment. It wasn't sick, just misguided. And a little pathetic.

Frank

I wouldn't go that far. Sick yes, but the guy isn't Hitler.

DaveonWheelock's

Genocide's got nuthin' on this.

Dream_Weaver

Yeah, the holocaust was way better than this….. If you think this is humanity at its worst, then what a stupid you are.

Guest

Indeed. What. A. Stupid.

ejaculASIAN

i find it interesting that somehow what i said conjured up thoughts on hitler and the holocaust out of some of you. while NOTHING can ever come close to the unfathomable atrocity of the holocaust, i do believe that any individual that would go on a several year long lie, knowingly tugging at the heartstrings of people all the while, exhibits what i, personally, would define as humanity at its worst. regardless of his intentions of inspiration, this person very carefully and tediously maintained a web of deceit amongst all those he wanted to help. keep in mind that some of the worst things in the world have happened with the best of intentions, and while this may not be on the magnitude of what some of you may define as humanity at its worst, i find it to be an example of.

actually, no i didn't. you put it on par with them. you've defined humanity at its worst as those things, and i absolutely agree that they are perfect examples of humanity at its worst, i'm not saying they are not. but do things have to be so extreme as to be defined as humanity at its worst? why does a person who deceives for years and masquerades as someone they aren't not also put into that category? what would you say about a person who lights a dog on fire, or someone who manipulates for the gain of oneself?

at the end of the day, all i am saying is that to me, along with the mass murder, systematic rape, genocide, and everything anyone could give as an example as to make me sound like an idiot, this registers. at least to me.

herpderp

Shut up, nothing you have said is profound. And really, this isn't that big of a deal. It's not as though this fake Dave character amassed some sort of enormous cripple cult where everyone died in the end. The guy had 8 followers before his story was picked up.

ejaculASIAN

you're right, all profoundness can be found in herpderp.

herpderp

none what so ever

Bluto

Apparently, you herpderp need to look within yourself.

Mark

the problem with your argument is your definition of "humanity at its worst". A scam, as elaborate as it may be is still just a scam. Point is there are much worse things that a human is capable of. Therefore saying this is "humanity at its worst" is simply incorrect.

stoops

i think he's saying the person behind the scam, not the scam itself, no?

Mark

But the scam is what the person has done. The thing is, it wasn't even meant as a scam. His intent was to inspire people. As warped as it is to think that's the best way to inspire people it doesn't mean it's humanity at its worst.

http://twitter.com/undefined @undefined

You're forgetting one part of this in your rush to judgement. You see, he went years with exactly 8 followers. And (at least) one of them was himself, if not all of them. This is NOT "tugging at the heartstrings" as you put it. It wasn't until the past month or two that the account got any kind of attention, and it wasn't until this week that things blew up for him. And that's when he "killed" the character. So, really, he tugged on the heartstrings for what? 7 days? 10? a month? For a "guy" who's "existed" for 5 years, that's NOTHING.

ejaculASIAN

what does it matter if it was 8 or 100? even if it was just one person, he allowed them to become emotionally invested for years, and then for 7-10 days to a month, as you put it. do you not see anything innately wrong with that? go tell a kid who believes in santa clause that he isn't real, and then tell me what sort of reaction you get.

AmerikanInfidel

at its worst? I'm thinking the terrorist attacks of 9/11 might be slightly more of a representation of "humanity at its worst."

billy

I totally agree, its sad that people can have so much compassion for an imaginary person and none at all for a real suffering individual, who had to create an imaginary person for anybody to even notice him.

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